Timothy’s Story

Timothy Swain developed an interest in calligraphy when he started his university studies in 1959 at Lewis & Clark College. He collected Lloyd Reynolds’ recommended readings and practiced independently. Alongside calligraphy, Tim was deeply engaged in printing, illumination, and typesetting, using his skills to create posters and other materials.

Timothy devoted himself to the study and performance of the lute, often spending hours practicing and researching historical performance techniques. His dedication earned him an Oregon Artist Fellowship in 1979, enabling further study in England. Throughout his career, he performed solo concerts pairing lute music and spoken poetry. He said, “The music and poetry work a mutual alchemy on each other, they ‘take fire’ as it were and amplify & embroider each other much like a gloss on a medieval text. Lute music grew out of certain rhetorical, theatrical, and philosophical ideals which we no longer know, or have forgotten, but which can be found and demonstrated anew in texts and poetry alongside the music.”

Timothy passed, peacefully, in his sleep Thursday May 16, 2024. Here are some of his thoughts on death from his writings in 2021.

“Maybe this is a lost cause, writing about my life which cannot possibly be of interest to anyone who did not live it. Who will possibly be interested in my life, when I can’t even say the names of those students to whom I gave lessons-the final thing that justifies my pointless, erratic living? This period of long interminable months-the days of COVID when I must practice what life decrees for the old-living very much alone-when my precious kitty Calico dies of cancer and leaves me with alone with Cyrus (twice Calico’s age of 11 years-Cyrus is 22 years old!) I have lived the course of almost four Cyrus lifespans. And have been blessed with such a life! Leave it alone-thus the great Lord of All decrees! Live your life forward-until it ceases-until the Memory of All ceases! You are in the “Mean-Time.” Be grateful for what that provides! The provisions of such are considerable! Do not protest! Live it or leave it. Thus, it is decreed-I must go on-until the going-on does not get-on any further. Until this life ends.

CALICO

Kit Kat, Rattle Back, What do you see?

Kit Kat, rattle back, Mysterious places harbor me.

Kit Kat, Majesty Act, Where do you go?

Kit Kat, majesty act, Places you cannot see.

Kit Kat, Crowning Queen, What have you got?

Kit Kat, crowning queen, I see more than you know.

Kit Kat, Calico, Come back, come back!

Kit Kat, Calico, I’m off forever, I flee, I flee-

Kit Kat, Solemn Cat, Come back to me.

Kit Kat, Kitty, Kitty, I’m off you see.

Timothy Swain, 10 June 2021

Published by Legacy on May 18, 2024.

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